Red_2's NE ANH TK build ...

[Red_2[TK]]

The ab plate is lightly pushing on the  sides of the chest, but the only adjustments I made were on the lower sides.

So that's catching my eye too, but I don't think it's the ab plate doing it. 

Edited September 28, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

Alright, back to the chest fitting. Made adjustments so that the chest is no longer putting any pressure on the ab plate and vice versa. As gaz noted above, maybe the ab plate was making the chest widen out a bit. I also mentioned/drew above that I thought the chest look a tiny bit wide when I tried it on with ab, bells, biceps and forearm.

 

Let's see how this fitting goes. (Thanks to the wife for helping me tape up and take pics.)

 

Here's the newly adjusted chest plate. It swings totally free of the ab plate which is taped up to be just brushing my love handles. Also note that the line separating the cod and ab plate is right at my waist or lined up with my hip bones. (Huge gap between the bottom of the cod and my crotchola.) 

 

Test fit with arms on. 

 

 

Tried to angle myself a bit to get some better light contrast here. (Yes, that is tissue stuffed up my nose. Allergies today. This week has been really uncomfortable for me health wise. Blah.)

 

And for reference, here's the AP chest laid over the top of my modded NE. Not too much difference in the sides.

 

Right side.

 

Left side.

 

As it stands, I think I'll stop messing with the chest for now and start getting the ab plate/cod, kidney, and butt situated.

 

I also started smoothing out any corners on the biceps, and gluing down inner joining strips.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Red_2

[maxsteele[TK]]

I'm curious - what does the fitting of your ab plate look like if you bring the cod piece up to cover the spot it should be covering?

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

On your side pics your abdominal plate appears to be really too low.

I think you should consider strapping the kydney plate with the abdominal plate before trying to make the ab/chest connection. Once you got the kydney/ab strapped together it's all easier.

[Red_2[TK]]

I'll tape up the kidney and butt tonight, Germain, and take pics so we can see how it fits on me stock.

I assume the kidney and butt are going to be big. The back plate seems to fit perfect.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

I'm curious - what does the fitting of your ab plate look like if you bring the cod piece up to cover the spot it should be covering?

 

Like this:

 

 

     ... Juuuuuuussst kidding.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

Okay, so based on what I'm seeing I went ahead and took another 1/4" off the neckline to give some more up and down adjustment room with the ab plate. I was able to scoot the ab plate up a bit more to where it starting to feel like the cod is close to being where it should. Note: I've got the back plate on too here.

 

 

Here's me holding up the back plate, trying my best to keep it flush. It is WIDE compared to me.

 

Here's the attempt to tape it up. My wife says that the outside corners of the back plate hit the kidney in a way that makes it difficult for the back and the kidney to sit flush with each other.

 

I put a dot where the wife says the back plate is keeping the kidney from sitting flush against it.

I think it may just be a positioning issue. It's obviously low here.

 

It'll be a veeery interesting process getting the ab plate connected to the kidney so that each feels fitted.

 

I'll reiterate that the most frustrating part of this process is taping up the suit to test fit. Glad there's the wife to help out. Sheesh. 

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

I'm sure you will sort it out more easily once you'll have removed all the flash there is on the sides of the NE armor. I don't think you need that extra room.

 

 

[Red_2[TK]]

Indeed. I'll start trimming the flash tonight.

[Red_2[TK]]

Cruising along ...

 

- gluing inner and cover strips to the biceps and forearms.

- trimming kidney little by little to get the right ab to kidney fit.

- trimmed some extra flash off the back plate

 

Mostly trim here, tape up to fit, trim here, tape up to fit, all while waiting for E6K to dry. 

 

I'll post some pics up of the next big test fit here in a couple days.

 

[Red_2[TK]]

Update ... Photobucket is horrible!

 

Been mostly gluing cover strips down the past few days. Ugh, what a pain.

 

Trimmed the ab plate and the kidney down to a good fit. Looks like I got the ab plate positioned now to where I don't think I need to cut the cod. I think I'll trim the neck line on the chest just another 1/4". The cod is in the right place now, no huge gap.

 

The back plate looks funny to me. I tweaked the lower corners a tiny bit to get the plate to sit flush with the kidney. The back plate already looks wide on me, so it looks even wider this way.

 

Before I tweaked the lower corners, as a reference.

 

I wonder if trimming the side a bit would help define it's normal shape.

 

Side pics. Gotta notch the kidney still. And I'm guessing I just go ahead and match the butt to the kidney plate and trim the sides accordingly. Right?

 

 

Right forearm and biceps glued up!

[gazmosis[501st]]

Looks fantastic so far!

[maxsteele[TK]]

I can't tell from the distance of the pics, but did you completely cut off the square cut area on the kidney?  This is what the NE kidney looks like before it's trimmed:

 

 

 

 

 

And this is what it looks like after it's trimmed out:

 

 

 

 

 

I trimmed a bit more where I took out the return edge along the vertical edge, but kept it at the square notch:

 

[Red_2[TK]]

Yeah, I trimmed way further back then the notch, Ron. I'll need to add it back in, like I mentioned above.

[starsaber25[Admin]]

Hey Ryan everything is looking good.  Man people aren't joking when they say NE is geared towards larger people.  That back plate is very big. 

 

You are doing a great job making it look good on you.  If I may offer up a suggestion and you don't have to do it I don't think but you may want to consider rounding off the coverstrips to make it look cleaner.

 

But keep up the good work!

[Red_2[TK]]

Thanks Steve! It's definitely been a tedious process. Was hoping to be further along by now. But I find myself being overly cautious on the trimming.

 

The corners on the cover strips are rounded off, do you mean maybe to trim them down closer to the edges?

I placed the strips so they'd be almost level with the edges maybe a millimeter or two past. But since the

return edges slope they look like they go way past the edge from certain angles.

 

Let me know what you think!

[Red_2[TK]]

Here's a better pic of the cover strips, Steve.

 

[Red_2[TK]]

To address the wide back plate I'm gonna trim the sides a tad. 

After looking at some references I used some trim tape again to mark where to score.

 

 

 

After the trim. Obviously I lose the subtle return edge, but I still have some room to add a slight one back in. Just need to practice a little on some scraps first.

 

I'll try it on again tonight to compare. I want to have the back plate and ab plate positioning down tonight.

[Red_2[TK]]

Test fit after trimming the back plate! I think it looks way better.

Need to tweak the butt on the left side there just a tad, but overall it looks

like it's coming together fit wise. I'll have some minor aligning to do here and there.

I think I pulled the butt in a little too tight to the cod between my legs.

No biggie since I haven't trimmed that part yet.

 

Notched the kidney too.

 

I did cut the ab plate another 1/4" at the neck line, but the plate sagged a bit when taking these pics so it does sit a bit higher when taped up correctly. I need to take a pic against a white back ground. I'm wondering if the butt may be too long from the top to the bottom for me.

 

So next I'm gonna trim about a 1/4" from the shoulders of the ab plate and the back plate to create a little more of a gap between, then start sizing up some strapping there. I also think I can go ahead and start planning the rivets on the kidney and ab plate, and also for the rest of the torso. Can't wait to strap up the arms so I can see how it all looks top half wise.

Edited October 16, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

Test fit! I truly *%@!* hate test fitting. For some reason all the taping and barely staying together feeling while trying to move around is a trigger for me. Like trying to stop small breaks in a damn with your fingers. Grrrrrrrr! 

 

But ... it has to happen.

 

I tried using some sticky velcro as temporary straps this go round, it worked a little better.

 

Looks like the chest and back plate sit nicely with a gap of 3/8" at the tops of my shoulders. That's even after cutting 1/4" from each side last night. I set the right bicep a tad high apparently.

 

I think the shoulders look spot on. The gap between the back plate and the bells doesn't look bad.

The wife says the back plate and the kidney almost sit perfectly flush but looks it'll need the help of the strapping to keep them together obviously.

 

I may tweak the back of the right shoulder bell a tad. Seems to deflect back in this picture. I'd like to turn it in a bit.

 

 

Helmet on! Chest swung forward a bit in this pic. The shoulders pushed it forward when I was clumsily attempting to put my lid on. Again, super frustrating to me.

 

 

Hey, I almost look like a stormtrooper.

 

Gonna need a bit of foam padding in spots, especially the biceps and forearms to get them to feel

fitted.

[Red_2[TK]]

From here I'm gonna set the white elastic on the chest and back plate then go from there.

Most likely I'll start hanging the shoulders, biceps and forearms next, while I start on the legs.

 

Trimmed the shoulder straps last night, positioning them in the front has them almost touching the back panel

on the back plate. Do we trim these shorter on smaller guys like me?

 

Crunch time ... I need this thing wearable on Halloween.

[Barcode]

Good luck! I busted butt on my armor for Halloween. =]

[Red_2[TK]]

Thanks, BC!

 

I started building the helmet mid-August, and got the kit the second week of Sept. I think. You can never over prep, I guess.

[Red_2[TK]]

Busted out the legs tonight.

 

 

HOLY @#$%! The thighs are large. Whoa.

 

Trimmed the fronts down to 10mm each side for cover strip space. Then glued down one side of the inner shim. I'll glue the other side tomorrow night so the thigh is at least fixed in the front, that way I can size it up knee to cod, that way I can find out where to trim down from the top. 

 

Clamps and magnets!

 

Shins identified and marked accordingly. I also trimmed the fronts on these, and will glue up the fronts. When I test fit the shin over my boots it looked like the shin length was almost spot on. That'd be awesome.

 

Interesting find: After I was done marking the inside of the shins left and right, I went to put the last piece down but apparently was trying to simultaneously cap the marker. So I accidentally put a black streak on the outside of the shin. Nice. Luckily it was on what will be flashing for me, but I still tried to quickly wipe it off with my thumb. Huge smear. I made a weird face, looked up and saw the bottle of polish on the bench and decided to see if it would buff out.

 

After grabbing a rag and rubbing the compound in for a bit, the ink disappeared. Cool. Then I flipped the rag over to rub out the rest of the remaining compound and holy crap, it was like a mirror finish. Ha ha! The NE armor is super glossy out of the box, but I just made a section of it super super glossy! It looks like it has a clear coat in that spot.

 

Anyhoo, lots more to get done tomorrow.

[Sly11[Admin]]

Looking awesome so far, arm parts look nice and clean, and the back plat is looking much better, keep up the good work.

 

 

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